Bodega Bay 3/17/12

With all the rain we've been having most places to fish near me have slowed down a bit, I looked at the forecast and it said it was gonna be sunny in bodega so I decided thats where I wanted to spend my day off. Took the girl friend down with me on the long 2 hour + drive. I wanted to try for the whole trick today, Rockfish, eels, crabs, and clams. We arrive to my usual poke pole area around 1300 and man, I know Bodega is known for being windy, but omg today the wind was beyond ridiculous.

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Deni in the wind

The wind made tossing lures extremely difficult and poke poling hard as well. Controlling your line keeping the right amount of sensitivity on it to feel your lure, plugging today just wasn't gonna happen for me. I tried drop shotting and soaking some squid for a while, but never had any luck with it.

Deni pushed through though and ended up getting a few eels.

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I ended up just throwing out my crab hawks and trying for some dungies.

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This is what I got most of the time.

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Red are good too though.

While I was waiting on the crab hawks I thought I would try to dig for some clams. I realized earlier I had forgotten to bring a shovel, so I didn't plan on clamming, but the rock fish wont bite so this is what I'm doing.

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Digging in the sand with my bare hands, but persistence and hard work pays off!!!

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I spent the next two hours digging in the sand looking for clams, and man oh man am I paying for it. The sad is littered with very sharp broken clam shells and between those and the sand itself my hands have cuts and scrapes all over them. Heck me typing and writing this report actually hurts. I do it for you guys though! haha.

Now for any other clammers out there I need to ask for some help and advice, besides bring a shovel next time. My batting average was terrible. I would probably find one clam for every 10 or 15 holes I dug. I would find these guys more often then not.

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If I would have known I was gonna find that many I would have kept them, but I didn't, next time. The only way I knew that there was a clam down there for sure is if I just watched the beach and looked for water shooting out of a hole and that I knew was a clam for sure. Is there another way though to tell if there is a clam down there or not? That way I don't spend as much time wasting energy on too many holes for no rewards.

Second I need a better recipe for cooking these guys, and what parts I can or can't eat. I fried up the ones I got and it was good but really really chewy. Any help with that would be great thanks guys.

With digging for clams and checking my crab hawks every 20 mins or so I stayed busy throughout the afternoon. I ended up getting my limit around 1700 and just in time cause the tide was coming in on my and covering my stomping grounds.

My catch of the day.

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My Clams and 3 dungies I caught.

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4 red crabs for the day

Ended our day there. Fishing could have been better, but if it was I never would have gotten my clams. Had a blast experienced something new today and I can't wait to go back and try it again.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark